Billy O'Leary Attacked by Shark at Nobbys Beach in Australia's Gold Coast, When he fell of his Surf Board

A surfer has had a lucky escape after being bitten by a shark on Australia's Gold Coast - when he fell off his board and landed on the predator.

The fish, believed to be a bull shark, bit Billy O'Leary twice, slicing his flesh down to the bone and severely damaging his Achilles tendon.

Mr O'Leary, 20, managed to get himself ashore at Nobbys Beach where friends bound the wound to stem the bleeding.

"There were two bites. One is sort of half in his calf, that's taken a big chunk out of that," fellow surfer Tim Windisch told the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper.

"The other one is down to his heel. It's just right down to the bone. You could see the bone."

Chief lifeguard Warren Young said it appeared Mr O'Leary landed on the bull shark, an aggressive species known for its tendency to attack humans.

"He feels like he perhaps landed on it - he's come off his board and landed on it doing an aerial," Mr Young said.

"That's what he's said to us, so maybe he's landed on it and it's reacted. Read More

Koga's escaped! Rampaging 400lb gorilla breaks out of his cage at New York zoo and bites zookeeper before being tranquilized by SWAT team

A 400-pound adult male gorilla escaped his cage a New York zoo today, biting a female zookeeper before being tranquilised and captured in what a SWAT team leader called, 'the scariest thing I've ever done'.

Zoo officials said Koga, a 24-year-old silverback gorilla at Buffalo Zoo, Buffalo, took advantage of an unlocked door in his living quarters on Monday morning and slipped into the space behind it, which is used by zoo personnel but closed to the public.

A keeper who has cared for Koga since he arrived in 2007 was bitten on her hand and calf, in what officials said was an act of excitement rather than aggression.

'He was probably just as surprised coming face to face with her as she was with him,' Buffalo Zoo President Donna Fernandes said.

The keeper, whose name was not released, took refuge inside the habitat of a female gorilla and her newborn baby, Fernandes said. The keeper had a good relationship with the mother who, like Koga, is a West Lowland gorilla, native to West Africa and the Congo River Basin. Read More

Half the world's sea birds are in decline, says report

The populations of almost half of the world's seabirds are thought to be in decline, according to a study published in Bird Conservation International.

It found that 28 per cent of species are in the highest categories of risk. Conservationists are particularly concerned for the albatross family.

Threats include commercial fishing and damage to breeding colonies caused by rats and other invasive species. Researchers say seabirds are an important indicator of the health of the oceans. Source

Nepali capital faces peril of bird flu‎

KATHMANDU, March 19 (Xinhua) -- After the confirmation of bird flu avian influenza in a farm in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, the alert level among the residents of Kathmandu has been elevated.

More than 15,160 chickens died of avian influenza in the past two weeks in the farm which was later confirmed by the Animal Health Directorate.

The area has been declared as crisis zone and works like disinfecting and dumping the chicken feed has already been carried out.

Talking to Xinhua, director of directorate of National Animal Health Ram Krishna Khatiwada said that preventive measures have been adopted to check the bird flu while the area would be kept under high alert.

Meanwhile, the confirmation of bird flu in the capital has risen concerns among people of every walk of life. Chicken consumption has decreased and people in poultry farms although more cautious have been fearing that their poultry may also be struck with the deadly virus. Read More